


WINGS

by thecollectiveunconscious



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe, M/M, Magical Realism, Wingfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-21
Updated: 2018-02-21
Packaged: 2019-03-22 04:37:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 16,763
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13756464
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thecollectiveunconscious/pseuds/thecollectiveunconscious
Summary: Humans do not have wings. Period. Despite this irrefutable fact, however, countless mythologies detail accounts of human beings suddenly sprouting wings and soaring through the skies like birds.Uchiha Sasuke didn't waste time thinking about the stupid or the impossible - and 'humans with wings' fell squarely into both categories. On the scale of logic, he ranked it as one step below Santa Claus, and one step above the most ludicrously absurd idea of all -True Love.Well. You can guess what happened next.





	WINGS

**Author's Note:**

> I needed a break from writing about [angsty Sasuke](http://archiveofourown.org/works/12136326/chapters/27530721) and thought I'd try out sarcastic Sasuke. More fun.
> 
> 16,000 words later - I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it.

From ancient times, ever since humans had evolved in their ability to do more than scratch their butts and hump various animals, they’d looked to the skies and wondered why they were stuck earthbound slogging mud while creatures of the air soared to their hearts content.

The dream of flight has persisted with the centuries. Countless world mythologies recount tales of humanoids with the power to fly, but usually serving as warning for human hubris. Foolish men, like Icarus, who flew too close to the sun. Gods, divine beings, and monsters, so many monsters – the Harpies, the Valkyrie, the Gorgons.

When humans realized they’d never sport actual wings, they’d turned to innovation. Technology. Machines, AI, great achievements of human intelligence, building effective tools to substitute. Certainly, there was no end to what man was capable of making – which was just as well, as the earth was invariably going to shit, sharp rises in temperature and millions of tonnes of pollution leaking into the oceans, the crust, punching holes through the atmosphere. Humanity would damn well need a fleet of large winged vehicles to get them all the hell out before the Earth imploded around them with a bang, radiation creating bulbous toxic holes everywhere.

But still, the dream to sprout two wings of one’s own and fly with absolute freedom continues to linger among mankind.

Sasuke thought this was all rather ridiculous. After all, evolution could only do so much. He didn’t waste time thinking about impossible or stupid shit, and this fell squarely into both categories. On the scale of logic, he ranked ‘humans with wings’ as one step below children’s tales like Santa Claus, and one step above truly ludicrous notions such as – and this, he gagged even thinking about – _True Love_.

Which was why he’d been 100% surprised, and 1000% pissed off, to look in the mirror one night and see a giant pair of wings sticking out of his back.

He’d woken up in the middle of the night drenched in sweat and cramped from fiery pain. Once he’d become coherent enough, he’d realized that he was surrounded by feathers. Masses of them.

Groggily wondering just why the hell it looked like a bird had exploded, and why the fuck his shoulder blades were in so much pain, he’d reached behind to rub his aching back – and had grabbed a fistful of _wing_.

He’d run to the bathroom, taken one good look, and screamed so loudly the echo had continued reverberating around the space for a full minute.

The rest of the night had been spent pacing around his apartment in a state of delirious confusion, trying futilely to tear them off, but they hadn’t budged. Hacking away at them with a knife hurt too much - the first bite of steel sending stars of pain spinning through his vision. He’d eventually fallen asleep from rage-fueled exhaustion, collapsing on the floor with those horrid things spread blanket-like above him.

In the morning the wings had been inexplicably gone. Like they’d never been there, no scars or anything. His analytical mind would usually have gone haywire trying to figure out the _when_ , the _why_ , the _how_ , but he was too tired and just too damn relieved to care, as long as the cursed things were _gone_. Perhaps he’d gone momentarily crazy and had hallucinated the whole thing.

Spirits elevated, he’d gone through his day at the office in an unusually good mood. He’d completed his work at lightning speed, fingers blurring rapidly across the keyboard, barked multiple orders at terrified subordinates, and had cheerfully taken off as soon as the clock hit six. Cooked a hideously healthy meal and fallen asleep while reading the annotated biography of Ivan the Terrible, all before the sun went fully down.

Unfortunately for him, the itching, the heat, the unbearable pain came roaring back and he woke up once more in the middle of the night to find himself cocooning inside the giant pair of wings. Again.

He stomped over to the bathroom, the damn things rustling behind him with every step. Stomp. Rustle. Stomp. Rustle.

In the bathroom, he angrily switched on the light and stared at his reflection in the mirror.

Dark hair. Dark eyes. Pale skin. Rather high cheekbones, rather long lashes. In fact, he possessed a face and physique that countless idiotic women had swooned over all his life. Perfection, besides the deep frown he constantly sported.

Oh, and the two ludicrously giant wings that rose on either side of him like overgrown vultures.

They were – not that he was particularly grateful for this – beautiful. The feathers were even blacker than his hair, rippling blue as they hit the light. As he moved this way and that they seemed to glisten, sparkling sleek obsidian. Like black diamonds tumbling through water. The outer layers were straight, neatly laid out, the feathers large and sturdy like those plucked off of larger birds of prey. The inner down, no less black, was soft, smelled sweet, and gently tickled his bare skin.

They were gone again with the dawn. Then back when the sun went down. Then gone, then back, then gone, and back again once more.

On the sixth night, exhaustion drooping his eyebags into the middle of his cheeks, he did the only thing he could think of. Even though it killed him to do it.

He called his brother.

 

 

 

His brother picked up on the first ring, although it was 3 AM.

Most people sound groggy or at least scratchy of voice when answering the phone in the middle of the night. Not Itachi. He picked up the first ring and spoke with the same calm, aloof voice he always used. As if he’d been at this exact moment expecting his little brother to call in a panic. Fucking Itachi.

“Sasuke. What a pleasure.”

Sasuke gritted his teeth. “Nii-san. I need your help.”

“Anything for my beloved otouto.” His brother’s voice oozed out of the phone and wrapped around him in loving tendrils. Gross.

“There are wings growing on my back and I can’t get them off.”

A beat.

“Pardon me?”

“I said,” spat Sasuke between clenched teeth. “There are _wings_. On my back. I can’t get them off. I need your help.”

“…wings, little brother?”

Sasuke nearly lost it. “Yes! Wings! Really big fucking wings right on top of my fucking back,” he yelled. “It’s grown back six times and I’m this close to getting an axe to just chop them the fuck off! And my head, too, while I’m at it!”

“...I’ll be there in ten minutes.”

 

“Well, you weren’t kidding.”

Were Itachi’s first words to him when he opened the door. Itachi’s eyebrows were quirked so high they were practically disappearing into his hairline.

Sasuke stopped himself from throttling the doorknob. “Of course I wasn’t kidding. Why the hell else would I be saying I have _wings_?”

His brother entered through the door, shooing Sasuke inside with an imperious wave. “Oh, there are a number of things that ‘wings on my back’ could have meant. I had it narrowed down to three options. One, you actually had wings, for some inexplicable reason. Two, you were on drugs. And three, you just missed your handsome big brother and wanted him to come give you a sponge bath and a bedtime story.”

Itachi produced Sasuke’s old rubber duckie. He squeezed, and the duck quacked.

“Drugs? Are you for fucking real?”

Itachi silently reached into his bag and pulled out a drug test, an enema kit and a pamphlet for rehab.

Sasuke _harrumphed_ , and plopped down on his couch, dejection all over his face. His shoulders slumped, and his wings slouched downwards in a pathetic heap.

“They just keep showing up every night, nii-san,” he said, a plaintive, pleading note in his voice, very much like the little boy who'd used to follow Itachi all over the house, even to the bathroom. “What am I going to _do_?”

“Tell me everything,” ordered Itachi.

So Sasuke did. He told him all of the past days’ events, including a brief regaling of how he had terrorized the new intern in the office into pissing his pants in fear.

Itachi listened silently, his eyes flickering blackish red in the freaky way it did whenever he absorbed new information. After Sasuke’s story, he began to circle around the room.

“Facts,” he murmured. “Facts first, theories later. Fact 1: You have suddenly grown wings. They sprout when the sun goes down. Fact 2: They disappear in the morning, with the rise of the sun. Around seven, eight hours of existence in total. Fact 3: They leave no trace behind.”

He looked over at Sasuke’s wings. “Well, probability says they’ll disappear with the coming of the dawn…” he looked down at his watch. “In precisely two hours and thirty-eight minutes. And reappear later tonight.”

“Well fucking observed, big brother,” moaned Sasuke. “Congratulations on pointing out the most obvious fucking thing in the world. Shit, I thought you were supposed to be a genius.”

Itachi smiled. It sent a chill down Sasuke’s already aching back.

“I said _facts first_ , little brother. The theorizing comes next.”

 

 

 

Come the next night, he swept in again through Sasuke’s door, bearing a cart load of heavy tomes, a bird skeleton, and a lab analysis kit. And most importantly, a bottle of whiskey.

Before anything else, Itachi administered a series of tests. He attached Sasuke to multiple electrodes and ran neural, cognitive, and reflex tests. He drew out blood, swabbed inside his mouth, and bullied Sasuke into giving up a urine sample, then a semen sample (Sasuke nearly committed suicide right then and there).

His older brother was humming in the happy way he did when A) he had an extremely challenging puzzle to crack, or B) Sasuke was knee-deep in a giant pile of shit only his loving big brother could rescue him from. Rare was the occasion where A and B were combined – consequently, Itachi’s face was glittering like a disco ball, ping-ponging light around the room.

While Sasuke got down with the business of moping, Itachi spread ten different books around his person – medical texts, mythologies, and an old volume of _Ripley’s Believe it or Not_! flipped to the page showcasing the skeleton of the Amazing Bird Woman (conclusively proven to be a hoax in 1967). He compared complicated looking flow charts, pulled up elemental equations, drew an alchemist’s pentagram, trawled through pages and pages of old Cyrillic mythology.

The hours ticked by with nary a sound except for the brisk flipping of a page.

Finally, Itachi put down his book. He stretched out his neck, shook out his magnificent hair, and popped his reading glasses on top of his head (drool).

“Well?” Sasuke asked. Grumpily.

“Look here,” Itachi proffered him the heavy tome. “The old Phoenician story of the tragic hero Ahinadab.”

Sasuke groaned. “Christ. This is a medical emergency, there’s no time for _stories_.”

Itachi sighed. “This may very well be important. Have you heard it before?”

Sasuke shook his head.

“Then listen closely.”

 

> Once, there was a young man named Ahinadab, who lived his life feeling unfulfilled and always fantasized about beating his clever older brother, who was leaps and bounds ahead of him in life.”

Itachi looked at him. “Remind you of anyone?”

Sasuke hurled a pillow at him.

 

> The young man felt a gaping hole in his heart. Nothing he did would help. He spent day after day with growing anger, feeling vastly unsatisfied. Until one night, he sprouted wings on his back. He was scared out of his mind. What would he do, once the day broke, when his community came and saw that he had wings that looked as if they belonged to Mot, the god of death himself? They’d burn him, bury him, or worse.
> 
> In fact, the wings had been a gift from the gods, who had taken pity on him. They had hoped to bless him with the wings and, through them, find some meaning in life. A purpose, a soul mate, or both.
> 
> During the day, they disappeared. But they were back again that night. And again, and again.

Sasuke was now feeling extremely uncomfortable.

 

> Eventually he decided to use them – and found a hitherto unknown joy through flight. A joy that no human before him had known. Unfortunately, Ahinadab began to commit acts of thievery with his wings. He’d fly to the top of the temples and skim off the gold and other sacrifices. He grew rich. The gods saw this, and decided to punish him.
> 
> He continued to fly, night after night, until one night he flew so far that he reached several miles over, to a small village that was days away by foot which he’d never visited before.
> 
> As he alighted on the thick branch of the baobab tree, in the light of moonlight he saw a beautiful girl near the stream. She was weeping as if it were the end of the world. As she sobbed while crying out for the gods to relieve her of this misery, Ahinadab fell in love, truly and utterly. He longed to reach down and wrap her in his wings, and carry her far, far away.

Despite himself, Sasuke felt drawn in. “And?”

 

> Just as he was about to fly down to her, the girl was called away. Ahinadab had missed his chance. But no matter, he thought, as he began his flight home. His wings would propel him back here tomorrow night. And he’d bring over some treasures. A village worth, enough to win over the girl and her parents, and make her his bride.
> 
> But the wings betrayed him. The next night, he waited for hours for his wings to appear, but they didn’t. And they never would, again.
> 
> Finally, he set off for the village with his treasures, driving through days on the dusty road with the aid of a cart and a pair of oxen. When he finally reached the village, he hunted out the girl’s home and finally met her parents.
> 
> But he was too late. The girl had been married off, and taken to a distant land far, far away. She had left the village two days prior.
> 
> Ahinadab, lovesick, decided to chase after the girl and get her to marry him, instead. He reasoned, if he plied the family with enough treasure, they’d be more than happy to overlook the exchange of grooms.
> 
> Desperate to reach her before she went too far into the desert, he laid his whip countless times on the oxen that drew him. But they would only go at their slow, steady pace. Eventually, he was reduced to wandering the desert alone, pining for the girl, forever chasing after but never seeing her again. She was at a distance that would have been easily reachable, had he still had his wings.
> 
> And finally, Abinadab took his last breath and fell dead to the sand. The girl was never heard from again.
> 
>  

Sasuke waited, but evidently Itachi was finished. “What? That’s it?”

“Yes.”

“The hell? That was the shittiest story I’ve ever heard,” he scoffed. “What was the goddamn point?”

“The point, my _dear_ little brother. The wings, initially, were given to him to _help_ him.” He gave a pointed glance at the feathers ruffling indignantly above Sasuke’s head. “As long as you don’t go robbing temples, perhaps yours, too, are a means to fill a terrible empty hole in your life. Of which you have many, no doubt. It’s your chance to look for your life's purpose, or your one true love, your Prince Charming.”

To the undying joy of BL enthusiasts the world over, both brothers were gay (though Sasuke saw himself as pretty much asexual – the mere thought of _touching_ another human being was enough to have his dick shrivel with disgust).

“Stop fucking around, nii-san,” Sasuke moaned. “That shit’s not _real._ Just another way to keep those olden day morons sacrificing their precious hay stacks and goat dung or whatever to the local fatass priests leeching off them.”

Itachi looked at him with a raised brow. “We are discussing this precisely because there are _wings_ on your back, little brother. We must assume nothing is illogical.” He thrust the book forward at Sasuke. “Read the story. Learn from Abinadab’s mistakes, and steer your own life with wisdom.”

“The only mistake this loser made was chasing after some dumb girl into the desert. I assure you I have NO intention of doing that.”

Itachi sighed. “And that, otouto, is why there are no tales of epic romance written after you.”

Sasuke snorted. Loudly. “Thank fuck for _that_.”

Itachi just shook his head. Then he reached into his pocket and deftly withdrew his smartphone. “Next thing, then. Let’s take some pictures.”

“What? No!” Sasuke panicked, huddling into himself. “Itachi, I swear to god – what if someone _sees_ – “

Itachi smirked. “Relax, Sasuke. This is the twenty first century. If anyone sees, I’ll just tell them that you have a kink for bird copulatory methods.”

 

 

 

Another week passed with little change. Sasuke was now figuring out some tips to help ease his circumstances. By far the most magnificent aspect of the human constitution is their ability to adapt to most situations, no matter how adverse or unusual.

Sasuke made sure he bolted himself indoors as twilight fell, and only emerged out of his home with the rising of the sun. His generally nonexistent social life crumbled entirely to a halt. He was even becoming familiar to the sensation of wings suddenly ripping out of his back.

He found that if he massaged and relaxed the area around his shoulder blades, where the openings would appear – lubricate it well before the wings penetrated – it felt much, much better. It was such a tight little hole, after all. Still painful, but he was even beginning to derive some pleasure from the sensation.

(Yeah, that was on purpose.)

 

 

 

It took him another three weeks to actually use his wings.

Three weeks of insomnia, back-splitting pain, all-day exhaustion at work, fevered dreams and denying reality.

He'd jarred himself out of yet another unwelcome vision of him flying through nightmarish skies where the clouds swirled in the shapes of candy pink dancing bunnies, and he’d had _enough_.

Itachi was away on a business trip, and had made him promise not to do _anything_ without first consulting him. Advice which Sasuke disregarded easily.

He angrily gripped his wings and gave them a good shaking. “Okay, you asswipes,” he spat out, glaring from side to side. “If you want to fly, let’s _go fucking fly_.”

His house was conveniently located at the edge of his great metropolis megacity, right next to an expanse of dark forest. Beyond that were the canyons, and surrounding desert as far as the eye could see. It was like a scene straight out of Mad Max.

For centuries, humankind had abused the earth, and habitable space had grown smaller and smaller. The last of civilization was crammed in walled cities such as his – huge, at least 20 million inhabitants per city. These were dotted around the sole remaining continent of Eurasia. They were spaced far apart and people from each rarely visited another; few ventured beyond the safety of the walls and absolutely no one went into the wilderness.

Past the vast sand dunes of the desert lay the World Ocean, the all-encompassing body of water so blackened and polluted it was said to spawn fish with multiple eyes and plastics fused right into their bodies. There was no point for exploration, anymore in the rotten core; instead, humanity focused on moving upwards. Preparing to descend on other planets like swarms of locusts.

The wilderness surrounding his city were full of mutated beasts, the canyons and deserts concealed miles of treacherous sinkholes and lakes full of black and bubbling tar.

Perfect place for a clandestine flight.

Sasuke would normally have tested his wings out in the safety of his home. Practice hovering, leap off a ledge, that sort of thing.

Unfortunately he was delirious from frustration and weeks-long exposure to Uchiha Itachi’s taunting. So he did the stupidest thing he could have done. He lurched out of his house, staggered over to the side of a cliff and threw himself off.

He belatedly realized that, as he careened down the rocks, that he had never tried using them before and therefore didn’t know _how_. So he hurtled down, down, down, an echoing scream tearing from his throat and traversing all over the side of the canyon wall –

It was by sheer luck that he managed to twitch his shoulders the correct way on the way down, otherwise he would have fallen splat on the rocks and this story would have screeched to a stop.

One second, he was falling rapidly and screaming, and the next, magically, his wings were flapping and he was born aloft in the air. Sasuke, dazed, drifted along the gentle night breeze, trying to center himself and get used to the sensation of moving through nothing.

He gave a tentative flap, and he burst forward. He reversed the direction of his flaps, and zoomed backwards. He looped. He did a twirl.

He looked down at the ground, so far away now, and lifted himself even higher.

 _Holy shit_ , he thought. _I’m **flying**._

 

 

 

It _was_ a joyful sensation, Sasuke had to admit. _Flight_.

The first few days were wildly scary and full of terrifying moments - sudden failure of his wings, lurching through the air, spinning off in the wrong direction and nearly falling into a sinkhole. But gradually, as he got used to it, he began to get better. And he began to _feel_ things. The sensation of freedom, the mastery of the body. It felt liberating. It felt _good_.

More and more of his nightly hours were now spent flying through the skies. He explored. He skimmed over the tops of the trees in the forests, shooing away startled winged creatures of the night that flapped forward to have a look at him. He started carrying around a stick so he could thump a few of them across the head, like airborne whack-a-mole.

He went down to the canyons, soaring and looping through the magnificent natural erosions and catching the currents that tumbled through the open space. He ventured further than ever, flying overhead of dunes that stretched out vast and empty for numerous miles.

The more he used his wings, the longer he could fly. His back itched and burned less.

During the day, he’d sometimes catch himself thinking about his nights, and suddenly wishing that day, too, brought his wings forth.

 

 

 

Sasuke had been flying for a good month now, enjoying himself despite pretending otherwise, when The Incident occurred, soon triggering the events that would come to dominate his nights and turn his world upside down, sending everything ricocheting into space while he clung on for dear life. 

It was near sunup, around 4 AM, and Sasuke had purposely gotten out later so he could catch the beginning of the sunrise.

He flew over the now-familiar ravines, letting the dawn air breeze over him, and lazily looped and swirled in the air. The next half hour was spent in peace as he soared, not pushing himself, just enjoying the currents and floating along the skies.

That was when he saw it.

In the distance, there was another creature in the air.

Sasuke frowned. It was too far and too dark to tell, but he could see the shape of wings and thought it a rather large bird. But the movements were strange. Like him, it was gliding through the sky in lazy loops, going back and forth, almost playful. Birds didn’t usually fly that way. They pointed themselves and went in a direction, single-minded.

Hoping for a closer observation, he tentatively began flying near. The bird continued to float around.

He flew closer, and closer, and suddenly stopped.

For he suddenly realized that the _bird_ was much, _much_ bigger than he’d supposed from the distance.

And it had arms. And legs.

And it must have seen him, too, because while it had been circling aimlessly while Sasuke had been flying towards it, it now froze and turned in his direction.

Sasuke beat his wings and spaced backwards, at the same time the other took a hesitant move forward.

The two stared at each other. They were too distant to make out specific features, but the stars were bright and there was no denying it.

The other was also human. Flying. With big wings.

When it finally clicked in his head that he was suddenly in front of _another flying human_ , a white bolt of pure terror shot through his body. Sasuke darted back, hoping wildly the other didn’t have superhuman vision or something and hadn’t seen his face. He whirled around, spreading his wings to their full extent and dived into the air, adrenaline coursing through his body in frenetic waves and the only thought in his head to _get the fuck away –_

And to his horror, he heard a distant – “Hey! WAIT!”

Sasuke didn’t wait. He flapped like mad, struggling, spittle flying out of his mouth as he veered this way and that, trying to confuse the other via which direction he was going, and also in case the stranger tried to shoot him down or something (he was way better at this than Rickon Stark from Game of Thrones).

When he’d been flying at full speed for a solid amount of time, he cautiously turned to see whether he had gotten clean away.

Big mistake. He hadn’t. The other man was flying towards him at an even greater speed, looming large, larger, LARGER –

“Get away from me!” Sasuke yelled in a panic.

The man halted abruptly. He raised his two hands high in front of him, the universal gesture for ‘I am unarmed. Calm the hell down.’

“Dude!” Came the answering shout. “It’s alright, man! I won’t hurt you! We’re like – wing buddies!”

 _Wing buddies_ , for fuck’s sake. Sasuke turned and bolted.

 

Ten minutes later and he was panting with exhaustion. Unable to go on any longer, he alighted on the nearest tree branch. He took heavy, shuddering breaths, leaning on the thick trunk as beads of sweat rolled down his forehead like a glass dripping condensation. 

It was still plenty dark out; the sun rising was still some minutes away. He had enough time to get home, and in the meanwhile, he thought he’d lost his chaser…

Lo and behold the universe truly hated him because he heard the tell-tale sound of loud _swooshes_ , getting louder and louder. He closed his eyes, his heart hammering. There was the small Swiss knife he’d thought to tuck into his back pocket and he slid his hand inside, gripping it – one wrong move from the motherfucker, then he would go _slice, slice_ and cut off his ballsack.

And just as he could feel the incoming presence, he turned around with his full death glare on his face.

“Ho!” With a mighty swing backwards, the man reversed his direction at the last moment. Sasuke was swept full in the face with a blast of wing-wind.

They stared at each other. One, standing tall on a branch with wings tucked in and a tremendous scowl on his face; the other, hovering in the air, eyes crackling with enthusiasm.

The stranger spoke first.

“Hey!” He crowed. “Why’d you run away, man? This is _amazing_!”

High in the night sky above them, the clouds parted and the moon shone upon the stranger’s form, throwing him into sharper clarity.

In the dim ray of light, he could see that the man was of a similar age and size as him. He had dusky tanned skin and large, glinting eyes that were the exact color and brightness of the early morning sky.

More importantly, he had massive wings just like his, only his were as bright as Sasuke’s were dark. They were dimmed in the night, but he could see the patches of shimmering orange, red, and yellow.

The man continued babbling away. “This is soooooo unreal! I can’t believe – how long have you had them? Did they just suddenly appear for you too?”

“Er,” said Sasuke. “I. Um. I’ve had them for…two months.”

The blonde’s eyes popped even wider. “Two months!” He whistled. “You’ve had them longer than me! I just got ‘em last week and I’ve been out nonstop since!”

The stranger fondly swished his wings back and forth, smacking Sasuke in the face with the plumey tip feathers. “I seriously can’t believe this is really happening?! But isn’t it _awesome_?”

He was loathe to admit that it kinda was. But still. “It’s alright,” he said carefully.

The man laughed. “Dude, you always this chill? We are actually freakin’ _flying_!” His face was full of exhilaration. “I’ve been running around like a dog, so excited I feel like my heart’s gonna pound out of my chest or something! I want to tell _everyone_!”

It wasn’t his situation, wasn’t his business who the stranger had told. But Sasuke was instantly sick with worry. The wings could be tremendously dangerous if told to the wrong people.

“Who did you tell?” He asked, his anxiety making the words snap out more harshly than he’d intended.

The blonde laughed again. “I didn’t,” he said easily. “Figured these – “ he gestured to his wings – “are the type of things you keep to yourself. Though it’s been _killing_ me. I just wanted to _talk_ about it with _anyone_ , you know? And poof, here _you_ are. It’s perfect!”

He eyed Sasuke. “Wooooow, those are some badass wings you got,” he giggled. “What are you supposed to be – a crow?”

Sasuke rolled his eyes. Just his luck that he’d find the one other person in the same situation, and he'd turned out to be an idiot. A real usuratonkachi, if you will. “No,” he said snidely. “What are you supposed to be – a parrot?”

Instead of getting annoyed, or flipping him off, or flying off in a snitch (what Sasuke wanted), the blonde grinned widely. “Heh. You’re a prickly one, aren’t you? So, what’s your name anyway?”

“None of your business,” he snapped.

“Come onnnnn dude! We’re flying buddies now! You can’t say you aren’t happy you met me!  This is the chance of a lifetime.”

Now that his initial panic had subsided, he had to admit that it kind of was a relief - he wasn't the only freak in the world, after all. Even if the newcomer was annoying. And laughed too often. And had hair that shone like gold.

“Fine,” he grunted. “I’m – “” he stopped. He wasn’t ready to share his real name. Who knew what could happen?

“…Hebi,” he muttered, after deliberation. “You can call me Hebi.”

The other man sniggered. “What? Your name is snake?”

“Yeah. You got a problem with it?” asked Sasuke hostilely.

The stranger grinned toothily. “Nah man, keep your beak on.” His eyes lit up. “Heeeeeeeey, you know what – I know that’s definitely not your real name, but it’s like superheroes. We have codenames. _Awesome_!”

A headache beginning to curl around his head from the constantly LOUD volume of the other man, Sasuke was regretting he didn’t just tell him he was named John – when they heard the first chirp of a morning songbird.

He realized it was nearing dawn. As in, sunup. As in, wings disappearing when the sun rises.

“Shit!” cried the blonde. “I have to get home! Do your wings go away, too?”

Sasuke nodded calmly, but his mind was busy rapidly calculating the closest possible distance home and how fast he could reach it. By pushing himself, he could fly home in about ten minutes and avoid all potential viewers from the ground that might spot him. It was going to be close.

“Okay, gotta go! Later dude!” said the other man. He leaped off the branch and with a mighty flap, lifted into the air.

Sasuke did the same. He turned squarely round and launched himself into the night sky, beating his wings furiously.

“Hey, Hebi!” cried the man. Sasuke looked back – Christ, how much power did that guy have? He was already five blocks away and he’d been in the air for like two seconds.

“What?”

The idiot broke into a huge smile. “You can call me _Kyuubi_! Let’s meet here again, 11 PM tonight!”

Before Sasuke could reply with a defiant _hell no_ , Kyuubi was already speeding away.

 

 

 

He didn’t know why, but at 10:55 PM, he found himself flying towards the spot where he had met the blonde earlier in the day. He landed on the branch with a _thump_ , frightening away a family of rabid one-eyed squirrels.

He didn’t know why he’d come. The blonde – _Kyuubi_ – seemed like an absolute utter moron, the type of incessantly cheerful types that he usually avoided like the plague.

But he’d come anyway. It might be useful to spend just one night with the stranger, to maybe pry out any bit of information he could, then hopefully bid goodbye and never see again.

10:56. 57. 58. 59…

At 11:05, Sasuke looked down at his watch for the umpteenth time and frowned. How foolish he’d been for expecting this strange meeting to actually occur.

He rustled his feathers and straightened, taking off into the air.

“WAIT!” shouted a voice in the distance. “HEEEEY! HEBI!”

He whirled around. Far away, a small figure was zooming his way towards him, growing larger every second.

It was Kyuubi. The blonde rushed up to him with a powerful swooping of his wings, and near collapsed on the same branch Sasuke had been waiting on.

“He – hey – man,” he puffed, breathing heavily. In his hands were two steaming cups of instant ramen.

Sasuke raised a brow. “You’re late,” he stated.

The blonde grinned between panting breaths and stretched out one container towards him. After a moment, Sasuke gingerly accepted it.

“Sorry, dude – ” Kyuubi said, breathing finally beginning to calm. “Just getting – these ready. Can’t fly with-without fuel.”

He popped open the lid and slid out his wooden chopsticks, twirling the noodles in the liquid. Hot steam rose up and he breathed it in, deeply and appreciatively.

“Ramen!” He burbled. “Best thing in the world. And it felt right, like cold night, hot noodles, sitting outdoors.”

Kyuubi smacked his cup of noodles against Sasuke’s with a _thwack_. “Cheers!” He snapped open his chopsticks and dug right in, eyes sparkling as he crammed an absurd amount of food into his mouth at once.

Sasuke was kind of disgusted – he’d never deigned to eat something as pedestrian as _cup noodles_ before, and the blonde’s mauling of the food like an angry bear on crack was the absolute opposite of appetizing.

But – he _was_ kinda hungry.

He sniffed. It smelled alright. He sat down next to the man, flipped open his lid, and gingerly took a sip of broth.

It wasn’t bad at all. In fact, it was kind of good – MSG, artificial flavoring and all. Sasuke took a bite. And another. He took a deeper sip. 

Kyuubi finished his noodles with a loud smacking of his lips and leaned back, satisfied. “So, Hebi,” he said. “What did you have in mind tonight?”

Sasuke wasn’t sure. He contemplated the man – didn’t look like he would know anything Sasuke didn’t. “I don’t know,” he said slowly. “Any idea why we have wings in the first place?”

As he thought, the blonde shrugged. “The hell if I know. But they’re great. I don’t know how long I’d have these things, but I’m gonna enjoy the shit out of ‘em.” He looked at Sasuke. “You have any idea?”

He would die before repeating his brother’s crazy story of Ahinadab. “No,” he said firmly.

“Well,” said Kyuubi. “Uh – so… I know, no names, but should we, like… get to know each other?”

Seeing Sasuke’s stone face, he jumped right in. “I’ll start! Okay, so my name is N- _Kyuubi_ , and I opened up this kickass bike shop this year! Right now, I’m working on this sweet vintage Kawasaki, and I’m having it painted bright orange. My shop is called – ”

Sasuke hastily interrupted. “Look. I’m going to be honest. We don’t know what can happen. The less we know about each other, the less danger there’s going to be.”

He would have gone on, but the blonde’s face twitched, and a sign of hurt flashed across his face.

Sasuke, for some reason, scrambled to placate him, somewhat. “I mean, we can… talk. We can fly. But let’s just try to keep names or other personal shit out of this.”

There was a long, awkward pause between them.

Kyuubi finally relented. “Huh, okay, then,” he said, a weak smile on his face. “You’re right. So… fly together, keep things anonymous.”

“Yeah,” said Sasuke, nodding stiffly.

Kyuubi jumped up, apparently forgoing the offence. “Well, no point sitting around then. Let’s go! Where should we explore? Where have you gone so far?”

Sasuke got up as well. The flying _was_ a part of him now – when he had his wings, his whole body itched to be in the air. “I’ve gone out far enough. All down the canyons, and into the desert. Nothing but sand for miles.”

“Hey. Ever see any of those black tar lakes in the desert?”

Sasuke shook his head. Those were supposed to be even further out than he’d gone, he knew.

The blonde’s eyes glimmered. “Why don’t we go check ‘em out?”

 

 

 

They found the tar lakes, caused by earlier generations incessantly mining the sands for oil, and saw that they were much tinier than they had thought. Sasuke’s elementary school textbooks had depicted them as great bodies, as large as those Great Lakes that had existed long ago. But these were small, no larger than a pool and seeming to recede even further.

They explored, marveling at whatever remnants of old civilization they found, and puzzling over things that didn’t match what they’d been taught.

“Look at all this perfect nature,” Kyuubi would say, swinging his arms out wide. “Shame that nobody else gets to come out here.”

Kyuubi tried to make conversation. It wasn’t an easy go at first, as Sasuke was the picture-perfect definition of ‘standoffish’. When he ceased to break his pattern of replying to any and all queries with grunts and nods, Kyuubi gave up and began talking, dominating the conversation. He talked on and on about any subject that came to his mind, which was often, as the blonde had an attention span of a peanut and his mind was constantly ricocheting to a new location, like a football.

Slowly, as time passed, Sasuke began to relax.

 

 

 

Kyuubi, he found, was cheerful, opinionated, and often walked straight into trouble and generally blundered his way out. He loved everyone and anything as long as they made him feel alive.

He also would never stop talking, and though he tried to keep to Sasuke’s ‘no personal shit’ rule, it was near impossible for him to not talk about little moments of his life or the friends he surrounded himself with. They were a group of misfits he’d been tight with since he was a kid. He never mentioned them by name, but by characteristics. A lazy one, a dog, a totally shy girl and her overprotective overbearing cousin. An oblivious guy with giant thick brows and a psychotic redhead who was crazily in love with him.

As the weeks passed, Sasuke, tentatively, began to talk as well. It was seldom, but when he talked it was usually to complain about his brother, who had now ordered him a giant nest and was now calling him on the hour, asking if he felt like laying eggs.

Kyuubi’s life seemed vibrant, warm, full of eccentric loud characters. His life, which he’d always been satisfied with, had begun seeming dull and colorless in return.

 

 

 

The wings still showed up like clockwork, month in and month out; they met almost every day now. Sometimes, they flew under the utter dark cover of the night, and other times, they started out later to catch the air moments before the dawn. They grew stronger and savvier, knowing exactly which angle to slice their wings to get the biggest push from the wind, to which extent they should spread to glide smoothly and rely less on flapping. They went further and further into the dunes, always exploring.

Kyuubi was still loud, still annoying – but Sasuke began to feel comfortable in his presence. Too comfortable, as if he’d known him his whole entire life.

During the day, when he’d sit back in his office chair and fantasize about his flights, Kyuubi would be right there with him, smiling his blue-eyed smile.

“Hey, Hebi,” Kyuubi said to him one night. Sasuke looked over. His face was shining. “Seriously. I’m having the _best_ time of my life.”

 

 

 

They were flying miles out into the desert, marveling at the endless sand dunes, when Sasuke heard the rumble of thunder.

“Shit,” he muttered. The plain was too vast and the sounds echoed too much to pinpoint which direction it was coming from. It had sounded distant enough, but they couldn’t risk being caught in rain. Their wings were heavy and large, and extremely susceptible to the wet.

“You heard it too?” Kyuubi circled around him, eyes darting here and there as he, too, tried to figure out the location of the storm clouds. “We better head back – it’s treacherous out here.”

The deserts were a dangerous place, but the danger was in the sky, as well. The skies could be silent for months, even years, calm and dry, then suddenly break out into a flash storm that pelted the sands relentlessly, flooding it and turning it into great big vats of murky sand-water.

They’d been lucky so far – in the many months they’d been flying, they’d only heard the telltale sign of a storm a handful of times, and had safely retreated back without getting caught. But it was always a risk.

“Let’s go,” ordered Sasuke, and the two began flying back rapidly towards the cliffs; however, they had lost track of how long they had flown out. Sasuke was beginning to realize they’d gone even further than he thought.

Suddenly, the great clouds above them opened, and steady streams of rain began pouring upon the earth.

In a minute his feathers were soaked. Sasuke beat a little harder, willing himself to stay calm. Kyuubi gave him a thumbs-up. “We’ll be fine! Keep moving!”

They flew faster, but still the canyons were nowhere visible. And Sasuke realized, with a sinking heart, that in the pouring rain his feathers were starting to droop.

He glanced over at Kyuubi, and could see the same tight expression on his face – his wings were also beginning to lose power. The two shared a charged glance, and the same panic ran through their eyes.

“Hebi!” yelled the blonde. “We gotta find shelter! Now!”

Sasuke could barely see through the torrent of rain. And of course it was their luck that on the single day it rained, they had been flying way out in the sands, and there wasn’t a tree or cave or any sort of fucking shelter anywhere.

Desperately, he spun this way and that, feeling his water-soaked feathers beginning to clump. His shoulder blades hurt more than ever. To his horror, his wings began to give out in short spurts, jerking downwards, then dipping back up as he flapped with all his might.

The flew on, faster and faster, even as the rain began pouring down even harder and whole sheets of it began falling from the sky.

Sasuke looked down. Landing was not an option. The ground was so far away, and it’s leviathanic expanses of sink holes promised a slow and certain doom.

“There!” Kyuubi suddenly shouted. “Come on!”

He wildly pointed ahead, and dimly Sasuke could see the great shadow of a craggy rock face that loomed ahead of them.

“Is there shelter?” He spluttered, water in his mouth.

“Dunno! Hope for the best!”

On and on they flew, growing ever more desperate as the rain pelted down even harder. Distantly, they heard the roar of a hurricane. Sasuke paled a shade lighter. If they were caught up in a hurricane, thunder, lightning and all, probability was high that the only parts of them that would be survive would be a fistful of charred-up, crumpled feathers.

One of Sasuke’s wings folded abruptly in.

He suddenly found himself spinning down, flapping desperately with one wing, with his hands trying to smooth out the other, but it wasn’t working. He was flying off balance, veering sideways ground-wards.

His other wing was ready to give out. There was no way out for him. He choked, words caught in his throat, not knowing what he was going to say – a goodbye? Godspeed? His last will and testament?

“ _HEBI_!”

The blonde had looked back and realized Sasuke was rapidly failing. He immediately spun around, and bolted down after him.

“Here!” He screamed, thrusting his arm out. “Grab my hand!”

Sasuke looked up. Kyuubi’s eyes were stretched wide, the blues surrounded by a thick ring of white. His teeth were gritted with exertion, his whole face wild and terrified. He was too far, it was too late; he wasn’t going to make it –

 _“_ GRAB MY FUCKING HAND _, NOW_!”

Sasuke swung up and reached blindly. Lightning flashed behind them, close, too close, for a moment bathing the figure above him in a burst of bright light; Kyuubi’s head was emblazoned with a bright blazing halo, a vision of gold and white and scarlet fire.

With a grunt, Kyuubi pulled him up so the two were level. “Work with me!” He yelled. “We’re almost there!”

Sasuke snapped out of it and with a last push of exertion, flapped his one functioning wing as hard as he could. He gripped Kyuubi as tightly as he could; Kyuubi also pulled his arm so hard it felt like he was pulling it off. His entire back would have been drenched in sweat if not for the pouring rain; his shoulder blades were on fire and he felt as if his body would splinter into a thousand pieces.

With a final burst of speed, they reached the face of the rock wall.

“There!” Kyuubi shouted, pointing at a small crack shadowed by a jutting cliff hanging overhead. It was a tiny space that would just barely fit the two of them in.

Kyuubi practically man-handled Sasuke into the little opening, shoving him roughly so he was tossed almost face first into the hard crevice. He threw himself down next to him, his wet clothes making a loud slapping sound as they hit the rock.

They were just in time. Sasuke’s other wing was folded in as well; thirty seconds later and it, too, would have failed. Kyuubi’s wings, as well, were waterlogged and so worn down they looked like slumps of paint running into each other.

“You okay?” The blonde gasped, panting hard.

Sasuke couldn’t speak; he nodded weakly, leaning into the side of the wall. It was so hard to catch his breath. Rivulets of water ran from his head and dripped pathetically down his face, disappearing into his soaked clothes. He closed his eyes.

The two sat for a long time, not talking, resting their weary bodies and gazing blankly ahead at the relentless pouring sheets of water.

“Come on,” the blonde said at last. “We gotta oil our feathers.”

Birds, naturally, produce an oil through a gland located at the base of the tail, used for preening their feathers, coating them, smoothing them and keeping them waterproof.

Unsurprisingly, Sasuke would have gone utterly apeshit if he’d found himself with another unwelcome addition on his body, located near his butt, secreting copious amounts of lubrication like the world’s worst alpha/omega pornfic. Thankfully, whatever fucked up god had bestowed these wings on them had allowed the feathers to secrete their own oil through tiny openings at the tip of their shafts.

Kyuubi began pulling the oil through his feathers, puffing heavily as he sprawled out next to him. “That was a close fucking call, right?” He whistled. “How you doing?”

Sasuke gulped heavily, trying not to let his tension show. “I’m fine.” He shrunk his body away from the rain and turned his back to Kyuubi. He began to imitate the blonde, shakily combing the oil through the feathers.

His breath came in short gasps, and he was freezing. He shivered violently.

“Hebi. You need to relax. Let me help.”

The blonde lightly grasped Sasuke’s shoulder and turned him around. Sasuke, shivering and soaked hair plastered to his forehead, began to protest. “No, I can do it mysel-”

Then Kyuubi’s hands began gently pulling through his feathers, and he felt as though he’d shot Xanax straight into his veins because his whole body relaxed and slumped forwards.

He closed his eyes, and for an eternal moment the only thing he heard was the continuous stream of rain. The only thing he felt, the sensation of strong, warm hands, combing his feathers… rubbing his arms… gently pushing his hair away from his brow.

He opened his eyes. Kyuubi’s own had darkened. They swirled with unidentifiable emotion.

He stared at Sasuke as if he wanted to eat him.

“There,” Kyuubi’s voice rumbled. “All better.”

Sasuke’s breath caught in his throat.

 

The rain eventually stopped sometime in the middle of the night. It was a miracle that the storm had stopped before daybreak, as they would have been stuck in the rocks all day if the sun had come out.

Neither of their wings were fully dried out yet, but they had been diligent in shaking off excess water and combed every last inch over with oil. It would be sufficient for them to be able to fly home safely. They drifted slowly, making sure not to exert themselves. Kyuubi looked over at Sasuke constantly, a deep worried groove in his forehead.

“I’m fine,” Sasuke snapped, though the fire was out of his tone. “Don’t worry about me.”

“Right. They look okay,” the blonde murmured nervously, his eyes traversing over the length of Sasuke’s wings.

When they got to the usual spot where they went their separate ways, the blonde slowed down, flitting this way and that. “You sure you’ll be alright?”

Sasuke bristled. “ _Yes_. If you keep asking me that question I’m going to make it so _you_ won’t be.”

Kyuubi laughed softly. “Well, guess you really are fine if you’re back to being your usual dick self.”

He looked at Sasuke. He hesitated, and Sasuke could see some sort of indecision in his eyes.

Then he zoomed forward and enveloped Sasuke into a crushing hug.

“I’m glad we made it back,” he said, voice muffled into Sasuke’s neck. “Thank _god_.”

Sasuke, unsure if he’d ever hugged anyone before, hovered awkwardly while the blonde wrapped himself around him like a vice. Then he slowly raised his arms and slid it around Kyuubi’s back, tapping him on the back.

“Yeah,” he said. “Me too.”

Kyuubi let go of him with one last squeeze. He fluttered backwards, and though he had on his trademark wide grin, his face was flushed a rosy red. “I’ll see you tomorrow, then. Same time, same place!”

Sasuke watched him fly away, near forgetting that he had to get home himself.

The next day, and beyond that, things were seemingly the same – but different. Something of significance seemed to underline their interactions. Kyuubi was still full of jokes and moments of foolhardy recklessness, Sasuke still full of grunts and sarcastic comments. But he could feel Kyuubi’s gaze lingering on him, during moments he thought Sasuke was unaware. And when Sasuke looked across at Kyuubi, he was struck with little moments of wonder. At the way the moonlight reflected in his blue eyes. The sound of laughter that was as carefree as the wind. The dimples in his cheeks, when Kyuubi turned, mid-flight, and smiled only for him.

 

 

 

They didn’t fly too far into the sands anymore, but stuck closer to the trees and the outer edges of their civilization. Far enough to escape detection, close enough for safety.

“Hey, Hebi,” said Kyuubi, as they alighted on a branch for a quick break.

He reached over into the tree leaves and snapped off two of the gleaming, luscious fruits, handing one over to Sasuke with a toss. This fruit was hidden, scattered amongst the trees in the forest. They’d never had anything like this in the walls of the city before – they’d tried it on a whim some time ago and found that it tasted amazing.

Sasuke took it gratefully. Flying sucked out his energy like nothing else.

“What?” He asked, biting into the crisp flesh. The tight skin of it gave way beneath the puncture of his teeth, and fresh juice burst out and began pooling at the surface. It tasted like heaven, if there were such a thing.

“Have you ever wondered, you know, what’s there beyond all that sand?”

It was no big mystery. “Beyond the sand is the World Ocean,” he replied.

Kyuubi’s eyes looked dreamy in the reflection of moonlight. “Yeah. The World Ocean. Makes you wonder, no?”

Sasuke took another bite of fruit, chewing slowly as he mulled the question over. “It’s just a giant body of water. All the pollution is supposed to have left it like a black cesspool. I read about radioactive monsters growing there. Though that last bit’s probably bullshit.”

Kyuubi turned to him with an unreadable expression in his eyes. “Hey. Wanna try getting there?”

A piece of fruit going down Sasuke’s throat lodged, and he choked, heaving violently as he tried to get it to reverse its way up. Kyuubi reached over and thumped him several times on the back.

“You w- want t- to go – to the – _Ocean?”_ Sasuke coughed, getting his breath back in control.

Kyuubi shrugged. “No one in living memory has gone over there. People just stay within the city, where it’s safe. Everyone’s too scared of the sand and the random fissures and poison gas that no one bothers flying over or anything.”

“Yeah. Just what you said. Sand, fissures, poison gas. _Drones_ don’t even fly over, and we are two people with bird wings stuck on our backs,” Sasuke pointed out. “And even if you get there, what’s the point if all you’re going to see is black tar and mud?”

“But look at what we’ve discovered in all these months of flying,” said Kyuubi. “All the shit that we’ve been taught all our lives. Some of it’s there, but some of it’s not. Or it’s... different. Like the tar, for example.” He tapped his fingers against the bark in an agitated manner. “They’re supposed to be as big as lakes, but they were tiny little things when we saw them.”

“Yeah, some of it’s different,” admitted Sasuke reluctantly. “But there are a million things that could go wrong. A storm, for instance. Remember what happened last time?" (A tiny part of Sasuke blushed when he thought back to The Storm. The rest of him tried to squash said tiny part out of existence).

Kyuubi nodded seriously, as if he got Sasuke’s point, but he had that look in his eyes that Sasuke was beginning to learn was what he looked like when he set his mind on something. And the man, however happy-go-lucky he usually was, was tremendously stubborn in doing what he set his mind to.

“Fuck. You’re planning to go anyway, aren’t you.”

The blonde looked at him and smiled. “Yeah. Why the hell not? It’s like an adventure,” he laughed. He saw Sasuke’s murderous expression. “You don’t have to come if you don’t want to,” he added hastily.

Sasuke was looking murderous because he knew he didn’t have an option. The him of yesteryear would have cheerfully waved off the idiot to his certain death, but he felt differently now. About Kyuubi. There was no way he was letting him go alone.

“Fuck you,” he said reluctantly. “You’re bringing dinner tomorrow. If you bring ramen I’m going to rip your wings off.”

 

 

 

Kyuubi did bring dinner the following night, two bento boxes of a sloppy homemade effort that nonetheless had Sasuke’s heart do a tiny little flip.

 

 

 

“Alright,” said Kyuubi, slapping Sasuke’s shoulder. “Let’s do it this weekend. 

“Do what?” he asked in dread. He knew what Kyuubi was referring to, but had half-heartedly hoped the other man would forget.

Fat chance of that. Kyuubi’s whole face shone with delight, in exactly the same way that Itachi’s did when, as mentioned above, he was busy torturing Sasuke.

“Duh, going to the World Ocean!” Kyuubi chirped happily. “It’ll be like the adventure of a lifetime!”

Sasuke resigned himself to his fate. “Fine. What’s your plan?”

Out of nowhere the blonde produced a map with a flourish, unrolling it and tacking it up on the great tree trunk they’d been resting on. He popped out a small flashlight and clicked it, shining it over the surface. It was a current representation of the world at the moment – a sole, jagged lump of land set with tiny little dots (the cities), and surrounded on all sides by the ominous Ocean waters.

“Okay!” sang Kyuubi. “This is our location, and we need to move – east.” His light went over in a straight line from the one dot to the expanse of water.

Sasuke sighed as he grabbed the flashlight and wrestled it away from him. “You’re pointing at the wrong city, dobe,” he grumbled. “It’s _this_ one.” He pointed it at the small dot located much further south, a ways away from where Kyuubi had been originally pointing. “And we need to go _west_ , which is the closest path to the Ocean.”

Kyuubi shrugged, an embarrassed _hehe_ falling from his mouth as he scratched his head. “Hahaha… well, nobody knows where they are anyways. No one leaves the cities! We must be the first people to actually go outside the walls in like, a hundred years.”

“Alright,” said Sasuke, knowing that he needed to take charge of the preparations lest they be stuck in a dead-end with the blonde insisting to ‘just wing it’. “ _I’m_ going to be in charge of the route. We each bring supplies. In a light, easy to carry bag. Try to strap it onto your waist, if possible. Carry nothing with your hands.”

Kyuubi snickered. “Like a fanny-pack?” Seeing Sasuke ready to yell, he backtracked. “Okay, okay. So, like a blanket, some food, a first aid kit, some water…”

Sasuke, frowning, was busily measuring the distance and calculating. “We won’t be able to fly there and back, all in the same night, at our current speed.” he said. “We’d have to get there one night.” His groaned internally. “Stay the day. Then fly back once the night falls.”

Kyuubi nodded happily. “Cool! Like a field trip!”

Sasuke looked at him, unsure if the blonde was just insanely positive or super delusional. “Kyuubi. You know why people don’t go to the oceans. They’re polluted beyond repair, they’re said to spawn monsters. We have no idea what could be waiting for us… you really want to do this?”

Kyuubi stilled. “I know. I know what could be out there. But don’t you see, Hebi!” He flung his arms out wide, gesturing to the great natural wilderness all around them. He pointed in the direction of the city behind them, towards the towering walls that kept them divided. “There we are, trapped inside like animals, and we have this whole big open space all around us! Miles and miles of untouched land for a hundred years! And yet all we’re focusing on is how to colonize other planets! What about all of _this_?”

His eyes shone with a strange light, impulsive and deeply determined. “I know it’s mostly wrecked, and dangerous as hell, and most of that is humanity’s fault. But I’m going to see what’s out there, Hebi. If there is a problem, I want to fix it. Then I’m going to open up our doors, and we can go back out into _this_ world. I want all of us to be _free_.”

The relentless of his words struck something deep inside Sasuke, a hitherto unknown emotion.

“Okay,” he said, surprising himself. “I’m with you.”

 

 

 

They flew into the night, wings hardly pumping as they drifted into the currents. They needed to converse as much energy as possible. Sasuke had charted a course that, based on geography and weather predictions, had seemingly the least chance of striking with a storm or other natural disasters. They had veered off-course several times, swinging wide to avoid an ominous cloud that had seemed to be gathering in ahead of them. They’d flown through a field of poison geysers, spewing ash and fumes into the air. They’d strapped on gas masks and had circled and spun around the shooting black flames, flying for dear life.

Above them the stars were scattered in the skies, densely cluttered against the echoing black nothingness. A thick band of the galactic arm swathed across, shining vibrantly.

The stars pulsed with energy. Miles away from civilization, with nothing in front or behind him but the endless sands, Sasuke felt free, more free than he’d ever felt in his entire life. There was nothing more in this moment than the feel of wind and air and the warm presence of the man flying alongside him. He tipped his head up and admired the night view.

He laughed out loud.

Kyuubi looked at him, surprised. “What’s up?” He shouted over the whistling of the wind. In the dim light Sasuke could see that he was smiling.

Sasuke laughed again. “Nothing,” he said. “Everything. Everything! We’re human, we’re flying, we’re going to the World Ocean where no one has been in a hundred fucking years. We’re _insane_!”

“Hah!” Kyuubi shouted, laughter in his voice as well. “We are! We’re really fucking nuts!”

The two locked eyes, laughing hysterically as they beat their wings, faster, faster, as the stars blinked and spun above them.

 

 

 

Sasuke consulted his map. They were close. Very close.

The air had grown chilly and it tasted salty now, the essence of the Ocean mingling into the winds. Sasuke sniffed. He should have been smelling the scent of generations of oil pollution and gasoline leeching. But there was nothing – crisp and clear.

“Are we there yet?” The blonde asked, voice cracking. His eyes were pink rimmed, his skin ashen with exhaustion and his feathers drooping. Sasuke knew he himself looked no better.

“Almost,” he croaked. “If this map is accurate we should be seeing it soon. And the dawn is coming up.”

They continued to soar, desperately pushing their wings for just a little more speed, just a little more time. Almost there.

 

 

 

“I can’t go on anymore,” said Kyuubi tightly. His wings were beginning to droop into themselves, unable to cope with the all-night exertion.

“Just hang on,” mumbled Sasuke, struggling to keep his eyes open as the increasing wind made them tear.

Kyuubi dipped lower, gritting his teeth. They were flying close to the sand now, barely twenty feet above ground.

And finally, _finally,_ Sasuke thought he saw, in the distance, a gradual ending of the sand, and movement – the movement of waves.

“ _There_!” he shouted hoarsely. “I see it! _Water_.”

Kyuubi gave a grunt of confirmation, then abruptly his wings folded. He spiraled through the air then tumbled onto the ground, hitting the sand with a loud thump and rolling down the dunes.

Sasuke, too, felt his wings give – and he alighted more gracefully, stepping down onto the sand with a sigh of relief. He followed Kyuubi, who was now sprawled face-up in the sand, breathing deeply. They were at the base of a small hill of sand – when they went over it, they would see the Ocean. For better or worse. He massaged his wings as he made his way forward, wincing at the strain as he folded them neatly inwards. He rolled his shoulders, ignoring the bursts of sharp pain that erupted with every twitch.

He walked up to Kyuubi who was laying there, arms spread out wide, staring up at the increasingly lighter sky with a hard-to-read expression on his face.

“Come on,” said Sasuke. “Just over this hill.”

He stretched out his hand.

Kyuubi turned his head – looked at it – then looked at him.

“Hebi,” he mumbled. “The Ocean. I can hear it. Do you…” he swallowed. “Do you think it’s as terrible as they say it is?”

Sasuke shrugged. “I don’t know. Only one way to find out.” He stretched his hand out further.

A slow smile broke out on Kyuubi’s face. “Fuck it. You’re right. Only way to find out.” He grasped Sasuke’s hand and pulled himself up, brushing the sand off his clothes, his hair, his wings. He took a deep breath. “You ready, man?”

The two strode up the hill.

At that exact moment, the sun burst out of the sky, coloring the expanse a striking array of pink, orange, and pastel blue. And for the first time ever, Sasuke saw Kyuubi’s wings, clearly illuminated in the light.

He’d thought they were beautiful in the night. In the light of dawn, he could see they were absolutely incredible. Godly. Indescribable. The feathers ruffled and flared out and it was as though he were seeing the sun in motion, dancing plumes of fire and brightest gold. They awed him into silence.

Kyuubi was also taking in every detail of Sasuke’s wings, mouth slightly open.

And as the light spread further into their sky, their wings simultaneously disappeared in a _poof_ , leaving behind faint shimmers.

Kyuubi punched him lightly on the shoulder. “Hey man, your wings were… real pretty. Like you and your pretty little face,” he smirked.

Sasuke swatted him. “Shut the fuck up.”

Then they remembered where they were. Slowly, they turned and stared in front. And were struck dumb.

The World Ocean stretched out in front of them.

 

It was supposed to be black. It was supposed to reek of death. It was supposed to be full of oil and garbage and a thousand years evidence of humans pillaging through and sucking out the essence of the planet. There should have been monsters clambering out of its depths, rushing at them now as they stood dumbstruck, on the sandy shores.

The Ocean tumbled blue and clear, its waters glistening with the gradual rising of the sun. It seemed to go on for an infinity, crystalline and bright and infinitely sweet. They could see various birds flying peacefully overhead, ocean birds, seagulls.

It was the purest thing they had ever seen.

Kyuubi swallowed. “Holy fuck.”

For once, Sasuke agreed 100% with his idiot friend.

They stood there, unmoving, breathing in the air and drinking in the precious sight of them. Long moments passed, the gentle waves breaking and crashing into the shore. Some of the water ran up to meet them, the froth lapping at their feet then running back. As if beckoning them in.

Sasuke looked at Kyuubi. “Come on,” he said. “Let’s get _closer_.”

Kyuubi grasped Sasuke’s hand unexpectedly. Sasuke looked at him – he was trembling from head to toe.

Then with a yank, he pulled Sasuke forward with him, and the two of them went barreling into the water, shoes, clothes, bags, everything on – tumbled headfirst deep into the hidden sandbanks, and the water rushed up to meet them and everything was blurred as they were immersed into bright blue world –

Sasuke broke the surface of the water, standing up with a loud gasp as he furiously rubbed at his face. Holy gods it was _salty_ , and somewhat thicker and _earthier_ than he’d experienced with the stale, tinned water that was circulated in the cities. It was as if it were a living organism, _alive_ and of the earth.

Kyuubi came up for air, surfacing with a splash. He vigorously shook his hair out, flinging showers of ocean water in every direction. He was laughing so loud it seemed to boom, amplify, down through the endless waves and towards the distant horizon.

“Couldn’t’ you have waited one minute?” sputtered Sasuke, looking down at their ruined things.

The blonde splashed him, laughing even harder. “How could I have waited?” he cried, diving into the water noisily. He resurfaced, his cheeks bulged as he spewed water into the air. “Ugh, this shit is _salty_!” he yelled. “Can you _believe_ – is this for real? Wings, then the _Ocean_?” He shook his head in amazement. “I must have saved a lot of orphans in my past life, or just gone through a tremendous amount of shit before to be so damn _lucky_.”

He leapt in and out, jumping excitedly. He swam in circles around Sasuke, crooning, sending sheets of water his way. Sasuke gave in. He splashed back, laughing, swam underwater and snatched Kyuubi’s ankles. They played like two little boys who had never once played before in their lives, with wild abandon.

A while later they both crawled back out into the shore, too exhausted to speak. In their clothes and hair were caught a number of things – seaweed, tiny shells, grains of colorful sand and broken bits of rock. They sprawled out, legs and arms wide open, wordless.

"Dude..." said Kyuubi, voice fading into the open space. For once, he spoke quietly. "Why are we seeing this? We've been told and told that the world is done, the water is polluted, we can never go back out and the only option left is to go out into space. But why is the water so clear? Were we lied to, all our lives?"

Sasuke carefully considered the question. "I don't think... they were lies," he slowly began. "I think it really was ruined. Some facts are undeniable. Land used to account for 29% of the Earth's surface, but now it's only about 5%. The waters have increased. Sinkholes formed, tar built, and there are loads of mutations in the forests. But..."

Kyuubi prompted him. "But...?"

"Perhaps... since _we've_ been away from this world... it's been cleaning itself. We couldn't find a solution, but it founds its own."

"Huh," said Kyuubi. "So the challenge is not just hustling everyone out of the walls and releasing them into the world. We have to make sure we don't fuck shit up this bad, ever again." He took a deep breath. "Look at this, Hebi. How can people go their _entire lives_ without seeing this? I need to do... I need to do whatever it takes to get us all out here, safely, happily. But I need to make sure to protect this world, too. It's too beautiful to ruin."

Sasuke turned his head and looked at Kyuubi. He’d never seen his friend so brightly illuminated before. He belonged here – in the sun, in the light, in the water and freedom to go wherever in the world his heart took him.

He was breathtaking.

“Hey,” he said. “Me too.”

“Huh?” Kyuubi looked at him with an inquisitive expression, eyes half-closed.

“Me too. It's been the best time of my life.”

 

 

 

While the sun was high in the sky, they slept, huddled into a small, cool, damp cave they found conveniently down the shoreline.

Sasuke’s eyes fluttered open at one point, to find Kyuubi around him, arms and legs tightly huddled and entangled into Sasuke’s own. He blinked his lids sleepily.

The last thing he saw, before he drifted back, was Kyuubi’s face, nestled alongside his. The ray of gold lashes. The pink, heavy lips, dewy with a drop of liquid.

He pulled Kyuubi tighter into him. And closed his eyes.

 

 

 

As it neared sundown, they woke, slowly, bodies stiff from sleeping on the ground. Kyuubi sat up first, yawning loudly. 

“Hey, it’s almost evening,” he murmured. “Let’s catch the sunset.” He stretched widely and groping his way out of the opening. Sasuke followed him, scratching his bare feet on the rocks.

The sky was darker now, hazy and scarlet as the sun meandered its way downwards. They stood, side by side, watching it disappear, bit by bit into the skyline as the world around them progressively darkened.

The sun fell, and the skies were darkened once more.

Simultaneously, their wings burst out of their skin, the familiar sensation of pain-pleasure racking down their bodies, sending electricity down their spines as they exploded into being. While they rubbed absently at their shoulder blades, they stared at the water, taking in the endless waves, the sound of it rushing up to the shore, the way it illuminated the heavens and stars above. Sasuke turned his head and saw Kyuubi staring desperately into the horizon, fighting back near tears.

“It's okay," said Sasuke. "We'll be back, someday soon."

 

 

 

They flew back that night, physically exhausted but spirits buoyed by all they had seen.

“Dude, this is like, the beginning,” shouted Kyuubi over the wind.

Sasuke nodded. He’d never thought he’d ever feel _inspired_ for something, as cheesy as it was. But Kyuubi was right. The water was salty and pure and fresh. It was _real_. It needed to be shared.

“When I get back home, I’m going to start a campaign,” said Kyuubi grimly. His eyes shone with determination as his wings flapped harder. “I'll draw up plans. I’ll knock down every door in the city if I have to. I know everyone will be scared at first. But I’m going to make sure we all get out beyond those walls and see that water again, one day soon.”

“I know,” said Sasuke. “I know you will.”

 

 

 

They returned with barely an incident and in good time. The morning sun was due to rise in a quarter hour, and they’d made it back to the woods on the edge of the city.

“So… that was one hell of a trip, right?”

Sasuke nodded. “Yeah. I didn’t think it was going to be anything but…yeah. It was – incredible.”

As they drifted through the air, they slowly came to their usual meeting spot. Sasuke stared at it, at the thick twisted branch and the dark leaves clustered around it.

The place where they’d first crossed words, Kyuubi wide-smiled and enthusiastic, Sasuke sullen and suspicious.

The place where they’d met and separated, almost every night, for close to a year now. How quickly time flew when you didn’t notice.

Sasuke looked at Kyuubi and thought that he couldn’t remember life before he’d met him.

“Seriously, though,” said Kyuubi, voice gravelly. “Not anyone would have listened to my stupid idea. It could have been death. And not anyone would have come with me.”

Sasuke smirked, though he could feel a little fluttering in his stomach. “You’re right, dumbass. You got real lucky this time.”

Kyuubi didn’t smile. “I know,” he said.

Sasuke felt his own smile fading.

Kyuubi hesitated – then slowly, trailing his arm languidly through the air – brought up his hand and cupped Sasuke’s face. Sasuke’s eyes widened and he stared, almost helplessly, into Kyuubi’s similarly scared eyes. The palm laying against Sasuke’s face trembled, ever so slightly.

“Hebi, I…”

Sasuke could barely breathe; all he could focus was on was the warmth of the fingers grazing his cheeks and the tremulous voice that called ‘hebi’, gloriously blue eyes that were gazing earnestly into his own. He forgot that he didn’t like people. That he didn’t like to be touched. And that he didn’t like being caressed in the face by intolerably handsome blonde men.

“Y-yeah?” He managed to choke out.

Kyuubi leaned in slightly, bring him even closer. Sasuke’s whole vision filled with the sight of his glistening eyes, filled with an intense fire.

Sasuke, too, felt fire, spreading through his chest.

“I…”

Ever so slowly, Kyuubi laid his forehead against Sasuke’s. He closed his eyes and breathed deeply of his scent. Sasuke inhaled as well, his nose filling with the mingled scent of ocean, sweat, and an inexplicable sweetness like the cutting of fresh grass. The fading stars dimly illuminated the two figures locked in the almost-embrace, hovering gently in the air.

The morning songbird trilled it’s first notes.

Kyuubi reluctantly pulled himself away. Sasuke’s breath came in short gasps, feeling dizzy as if he had just been sprinting through the skies.

“I guess it’s time to go home,” muttered the blonde.

Sasuke stumbled, then shook his head once, giving Kyuubi a half-pleading look that would have embarrassed him to his grave if he were at all remotely aware of what he was doing.

Kyuubi gave a strained laugh. “Come on. Our wings will disappear.”

“I – ahh… yeah.”

“I guess I’ll… I’ll see you tonight?” Kyuubi’s voice, his face, were tinged with a mute desperation.

“...Yeah. See you later,” Sasuke promised.

He went home and, as the sun rose into the sky, fell into a deep and dreamless sleep. He slept well through the whole day, his weary body relaxing from the relentless drive it had gone through the day before. And when the sun fell from the sky and total darkness had blanketed the world once again, he woke, for once truly well rested and feeling at peace. He stepped out of his bed, humming tunelessly. He went to the bathroom and eagerly splashed water on his face, getting ready for his nightly flight. Where Kyuubi would be waiting.

Then he looked up and realized. His wings were not there.

 

Sasuke tore through his apartment, scrabbling at his shoulder blades and running to the bathroom every minute to see the tell-tale sign of wings about to burst forth.

Nothing. Absolute nothing. His skin was as smooth and unblemished as if the wings had never existed in the first place. As if it had all been a dream.

Fear and desperation ran through him – what was going on, where were they, when would they come, _was Kyuubi there_ –

In the late hours of the night, he could wait no longer, and ran outside. Past the edges of the city, where the forests and ravines loomed threateningly before the vast expanses of the unforgiving desert.

He tried to step into the forest. But the thick branches and gnarling vines, poisonous thorns gleaming dangerously in the night, were too difficult to tear through. He had so easily flown over this forest, countless times, but his human feet were failing him at the time it mattered most.

Finally, he staggered over to the cliff where he had first learned how to fly. He willed himself out to the very edge, head spinning with dizziness as he stood over the unending drop, the fear of his mortality pulsating through his head.

“Kyuubi!” He screamed into the night. “ _KYUUBI_?!”

The winds tumbled hollow through the canyons, bringing back his voice as if they were laughing at him.

 

 

 

After several agonizing days of waiting for his wings to come back (clawing his back raw and bloody), Sasuke faced the truth.

They weren’t coming back.

It was like the legend Itachi had read him so long ago, but a hundred times worse because it was actually fucking real. Every. Fucking. Second. Of it.

Sasuke felt lost, and confused, and was his foulest possible self at work. People scurried out of his way and the dark circles under his eyes deepened, standing out angrily in his pale skin like a militant panda.

He eventually came to realize that he had two options. The first one was infinitely easier. He could forget the wings, forget they ever existed. Forget he’d ever met a blonde with too much enthusiasm and hunger for life, and go back to his quiet and uneventful life.

He scrubbed his eyes angrily, because even in his mind he knew there was no point debating this. He missed the sensation of being airborne, the wind rushing through his feathers and the cool, crisp air of the dawn sky. But that wasn't the thing he couldn't live without.

So there was his second option, as clear as ice.

Find Him.

He’d be damned if he would sulk about like the old loser of legend and slog aimless through the desert until he fell dead. He was smart, resourceful. This was simply another problem. With a very probable solution.

The blonde was in his city, he knew. Just one, measly city. There was technology. He could find him. He was just one… in twenty million inhabitants.

He groaned loudly. And of course, it had been his own fucking stupid rule that they not ‘reveal anything personal about each other’. God _damn_ , was he the biggest motherfucking dumbass to ever exist or _what_?

Sasuke flipped open his laptop, nearly ripping off the lid in his frustration.

There must have been _something_ , anything…

He typed in ‘World Ocean’. Entry after entry popped up, all promising extreme pollution and big red DANGER signs littered all over the place. Nothing about it being clean, or a new initiative to lead civilization back out to explore its depths.

He needed something personal. He mentally ran through every conversation they’d had, anything specific about a person or location or place of work…

He opened his eyes. He grabbed his laptop, and keyed in ‘motorcycle shop’. He hit search.

10,395 listings came up.

More exact, more exact…

He typed in ‘Kyuubi motorcycle’ half-heartedly, hoping against hope. His computer slowed, the internet lagging in the middle of loading the page.

Sasuke waited, his heart beginning to hammer.

The search page loaded. ‘Kyuubi motorcycle’ it read. ‘No results found. Did you mean _Kishimoto Masashi_?’

Fuck. That would have been too good to be true. Something else, then, he thought, drumming his forehead. He thought back to Kyuubi’s words.

‘Kickass motorcycle shop with orange bikes’ he googled reluctantly.

Names on top of names appeared again, but it had narrowed significantly. 1,517 locations, to be exact.

Grimly, he pulled out his phone and opened his maps.

 

 

 

Only some nights ago, Sasuke’s nights had been spent flying. Before that, his nights had been spent at home, engaged in solitary activities like watching documentaries about the Third Reich. 

Now, his nights were spent visiting bike shops.

He hit up roughly ten to twenty a night, depending on the distance and how convenient they were to find. It was not easy. He’d forgotten how labyrinthine this city was, how crowded, how many inhabitants crammed in and the many twisting corners and staircases leading off to nowhere, shops tucked away in collapsing storage rooms and the dark of the underground.

A week went by. Two.

Sasuke had it practically down to an art form by now. He’d walk in, and without bothering with any pleasantries of any sort, bluntly ask, “do you sell orange bikes?” to the first person he saw.

Usually, they nodded yes. Then he barked his second question. “Does a blonde guy work here? Tall, dumb, good-looking – “ (the last bit slipped out unconsciously).

Most people thought he was crazy; some wanted to know who he was and who exactly he was looking for. One proprietor, eagerly running his eyes down the lean body of the insane (but hot) man framed in his doorway, had run to the back and come back out donning a fake yellow wig.

He wasn’t going to give up. Not this time. Not on _him_. He grit his teeth and forged forward.

Two months passed.

 

 

 

His search was fruitless tonight, as usual. 737 shops so far.

Sasuke was tired, downtrodden, and feeling as if a porcupine was forcing its way down his throat from countless nights wandering around the city streets in the smoggy air. He pulled his hood up higher over his head, blocking out the bite of cold, merciless wind.

He decided to get some medicine and stepped into the first apothecary he saw, a little building tucked off-corner with a pathetic sign that read _Meds for sale_.

Inside, surprisingly, the room was bright and professional, and the air smelled of pungent medicinal herbs. The shelves were crammed full of hundreds of different potions – each bottle precisely labeled and stoppered.

Behind the counter slouched an attractive blond woman, quite young, with sharp brown eyes and hair tied in two loose pigtails. And the biggest, most vulgarly obscene cleavage that Sasuke had ever seen in his life.

“Yeah?” The woman slurred, taking a gulp from a bottle. Sasuke sniffed. Definitely alcohol.

“I need medicine. For my throat,” he said stiffly.

The woman lurched off the counter and stumbled towards a back door. She opened it and bellowed, “Sakura! Customer!”

Sasuke heard the growing pounding of footsteps and suddenly, a pink-haired girl popped into view. “Yes, Tsunade-sama!” She chirped.

Then she looked at Sasuke and her eyes grew so wide they nearly swallowed up her entire face. “He _llo_ ,” she purred. “How can I help you, sir?”

Sasuke ignored her sidling up to him. “I need something for my throat. It’s sore.”

She visibly melted. “Ooh, you poor thing!” She cried. “What happened? A cold? Allergies?”

“Smog. City streets.”

“A sore throat from the smog, how terrible!” She cooed. “I can show you some different options – “ she grabbed his arm and began leading him across the shelving and pointing out the meticulously labeled bottles, one after the another. The bright little potions were beginning to blur and Sasuke was fast losing patience.

“Just give me anything,” he ordered, a headache blossoming in his temples.

The girl, her hands aflutter, picked one out and handed it to him. He took it from her and went over to the counter, slapping down a shiny credit card. The blonde lady rang up the purchase with zero interest.

He turned to leave, but the pink-haired girl wasn’t done with him yet. She hovered, looking anxious, firing questions at him. “Any other symptoms? Are you sure you’re not feeling any pain? Isn’t there _anything else_ I can help you with?”

He’d had enough. He glared at her with anger and frustration bubbling over, his mind blanking out with raging white haze.

“Fine,” he snapped. “Here’s what you can help me with. The reason I have a sore fucking throat is because I’ve been walking around this goddamn city for two straight months, looking for a loud fucking idiot who just runs off and does whatever new idea he gets into his stupid head, and even though he talked on and on about every single thing under the sun, couldn’t tell me anything useful about how to find him except that he works in a ‘kickass motorcycle shop.’ So, unless you are able to tell me where this shitty shop is, then the answer is _no_ , there is absolutely nothing you can do to help me.”

Seeing as the girl was gaping at him open-mouthed and speechless, he turned and stomped his way out towards the door.

“Bike shop?” said the blonde lady casually. “Sounds like you could be looking for Whirlpool Bikes.”

He whipped around. “What?”

She leaned over the counter, her breasts ballooning alarmingly over the top. “Kid opened up his own shop a while back,” she grinned. “A complete brat who does whatever he wants. Sounds like he might be the one you’re looking for.”

He swallowed. “Whirlpool Bikes?”

She nodded. He whipped out his phone and typed it in, and found that it was only several blocks away.

“Thanks for your help,” he said shortly. Then he stepped out and shut the door firmly behind him.

 

Sakura sighed as the handsome and grumpy stranger vanished into the night. “Oh my gosh, Tsunade-sama,” she gushed, hearts in her eyes. “I think I just met my future husband.” She whirled around the room in a happy dance.

Tsunade snorted loudly. “Sakura, don’t be silly. That boy was a total pouf. As gay as the day is long. In fact, I’m surprised he got a sore throat from the _smog_ , as he claims – I could’ve sworn he got it from sucking too many dicks at the club last night.”

Sakura shrieked, slapping her hands over her virginal ears. “Omigod, how could you say that, shishou?!”

Tsunade took another swig of sake. “Relax. Maybe he’a headed to the shop after all, and you can go ask the brat if you can watch while he and that boy go at it like jackrabbits in heat.”

 

 

 

He stood outside shop 738, and looked at the bright orange awning. _Whirlpool Bikes_ , was written in giant letters under the window in childish script. Below the words was, jarringly, the picture of a great grinning fox with jaw bared and swirly red demon eyes.

Sasuke allowed himself no emotion, because he’d been let down one too many times by this point. He steeled himself, and entered.

The doorbell chimed as he stepped into the shop, a musky scent of bike oil and gasoline mixing with the inexplicably sweet smell of freshly grown grass. Spare tires, equipment, tools and assorted knick-knacks were tossed around the room, carelessly shelved and threatening to fall. He looked around, turning his back to the counter, his eyes trailing over every whimsical item in the room.

His skin began tingling; his subconscious realized first.

“Hi there!” called out a cheerful voice from the back. Full of light, like a bottled sun.

Sasuke’s heart started hammering like mad, and his already sore throat felt clogged, like something hard and dry was ramming itself down.

“Welcome to Whirlpool Bikes! We have – many…” the voice stopped talking.

For Sasuke had turned, ever so slowly, and pulled the hood off of his head.

Kyuubi’s words faltered off, his mouth popped opened and entire face in shock.

Sasuke felt like the air had been punched out of him. Perhaps the two months not seeing him was doing things to his vision, but the blonde was so goddamn beautiful it couldn’t be real. His eyes were sapphire blue. His hair was molten gold. He was like a sun god, radiance in person, so bright and holy it seemed as if he were projecting beams of light into the world.

Come on, he told himself. He’d rehearsed this in his head a thousand times.

He took a step forward.

“Dobe,” he said. The word came out creaky, and he cleared his throat. “Honestly. Do you know how many bike shops are in this city?”

Kyuubi didn’t speak, continued staring at Sasuke with mouth open and closed, gaping like a fish.

Sasuke took another step forward. A mechanic’s apron was flung carelessly around the blonde’s neck, streaked with grime and dirt.

Another step. “I’ve run around practically this whole goddamn city,” he said. “I’ve spent over two months looking into every nook and corner where I even remotely heard a motorbike gunning.”

Kyuubi was shirtless underneath the apron, his tanned skin streaked with dabs of bike oil. The sight of the apron tied firmly round his bare waist was doing funny things to Sasuke’s insides.

“I had to endure my brother laughing at me every night for the past seventy-four days.”

He stopped when he was halfway across the shop floor. “You owe me. B _ig_ time.”

Kyuubi had been utterly silent, but finally, a light began to enter his eyes. His lips curved up into the familiar mischievous smile. “Hey, bastard,” he finally said, slow and flirtatious. “Took your sweet ass time finding me, didn’t you?”

“Tch. One more night and I was ready to give up and chuck the whole damn thing out the window.”

Kyuubi moved forward, as well. Ever so slowly. “Like you could have,” he said. “You wouldn’t have wanted to, even if you could.”

The space between them seemed to turn static, electricity sizzling between them. Sasuke had never been this _aware_ of anything in his life.

“Hm,” he murmured. “And did it ever occur to you that _you_ could have come searching for _me_?”

Kyuubi chuckled. “Oh yeah? At least I gave you something you could look for. Where would I have started? Google ‘hot, uptight man with a duck’s butt sticking out of his head’?”

The corner of Sasuke’s lips lifted in a smile. “You know you like it,” he drawled, slow and deliberate.

The blonde nodded reluctantly. “Yeah,” he admitted, swallowing thickly. “I must be some kind of pervert. Your hair is ridiculous but it always turned me on like _crazy_.”

Sasuke felt as if he were drowning in Kyuubi’s voice, rich and thick like syrup. It was intoxicating.

“Anyway, I knew you’d come for me, eventually,” Kyuubi said softly. “I waited everyday, looking out that window. I dreamed I’d see that pissed off face of yours coming down the street, and I’d just run, run out to you and…” he swallowed.

So close, now. The two moved in synchronicity, drawn together like magnets.

“So,” murmured Kyuubi. “Two guesses. Either you’ve come to punch me out for not showing up that day, or your wings disappeared too?”

Sasuke nodded. “Yeah. They were gone from that night. I waited and waited but they never came back.”

“Did they?” breathed Kyuubi. “So I guess we both didn’t show up that night. And here I was, worried for months that you thought I was the biggest tool ever and had stood you up.”

“You _are_ a tool,” Sasuke said. “You talk too much, you dream impossible things, you’re impulsive and you’re horribly reckless. You’re a real goddamned idiot.”

“Ouch! That hurts, coming from an emotionally constipated crapbag asshole with brother issues so big that Oedipus can go suck it.”

The two stood, grinning at each other like fools.

“Oi, Naruto! Hurry up and come to the back, we need to get on this order!”

The blonde’s head snapped up in a shock, dizzy, like he’d forgotten all time and space. He looked around his shop in a daze and shook his head. “Yeah man! Gimme a minute!” He gave Sasuke a rueful smile.

Sasuke stared. “Wait, he just called you…”

For a moment Kyuubi looked utterly confused – then he smacked himself in the head. “Oh, right! Duh, I kept calling you _Hebi_ and totally forgot that we have, like, human names.”

The blonde lingered, then finally thrust his hand forward. He gave Sasuke a shy smile. “Uzumaki Naruto, at your service.”

Sasuke took the proffered hand and enveloped it with both his own. He gripped hard, not wanting to ever let go. “Sasuke. Uchiha Sasuke.”

Naruto grinned. “Just as pretty as I imagined,” he murmured, as if he were talking to himself. “So… _Sasuke_. So many questions. I don’t even know where to begin,” he mused. “Huh. I guess the most important one would be... any idea why those wings suddenly disappeared? And just when they were getting real useful?”

Sasuke’s face reddened. And he cleared his throat. “Um, my brother had a theory. Ahinadab got wings because his life was shit, then the gods gave it to him so he could find his purpose and cheer the fuck up.”

“What?” Naruto asked, confused.

Sasuke took a deep breath, trying to concentrate when Naruto’s thumb began rubbing warm circles into his wrist. “This loser, Ahinadab. He got wings. He was supposed to find some life purpose. Then when he found true love, his wings disappeared.”

“Oh. That’s what it was,” said Naruto, casually.

He looked deeply into Sasuke’s eyes. It was like that whole cliché, peering into each other’s souls and that sort. Naruto’s whole face was glowing with unabashed delight; Sasuke knew that he, too, mirrored this look exactly.

“Well. Here’s to true love then, Uchiha Sasuke.”

And he grabbed Sasuke by the waist and jerked him forward.

Sasuke found himself stretched taut across Naruto’s body. A tan hand grabbed Sasuke’s chin and the blonde leaned in, capturing Sasuke’s lips in a hard, eager, forceful kiss. It whispered of long, lonely nights of longing, and a promise of even longer nights ahead.

Sasuke kissed back just as roughly, and for good measure grabbed a handful of Uzumaki Naruto’s ass.

Wings. True Love. Two things that were complete and utterly ludicrous.

The wings _had_ been real, but they were gone. He wasn’t one to dwell in the past.

He still didn’t know if he believed in something as unquantifiable, as unreliable, and as terribly uncertain a concept like _True Love._

But, he thought. It might be worth giving it a shot. Believing in _something_ ridiculous. Something too loud, too idealistic, too good to be real.

He thought he might try believing in Uzumaki Naruto.

 

 

 

_FIN_

 

 

 

**_OMAKE_ **

****

It was a few minutes before sunset, and Sasuke’s apartment was painted in the colors of the setting sun. Orange, red, and pink hues filtered through the floor-to-ceiling windows. Two out of the three figures in the room stared outside, admiring the view. The third figure had his back turned, scowling. 

“So, Naruto-kun,” said Itachi, holding his wineglass and regally swirling the blood-red liquid. “Sasuke tells me the two of you met while he was off gliding through the night. Dangerously. Without protocol or any set of emergency guides. Against my express wishes, I might add.”

Naruto laughed. “Yeah! Me and Princess Grumpy here had a hell of a time getting to know each other at first. At least, _I_ tried. He kept rebuffing me. But I wore him down.”

He gave Sasuke a saccharine sugary smile that would have induced an attack of diabetes to everyone within a two-meter radius.

Sasuke wanted to say he didn’t like Naruto’s gooey eyes, but he really liked them. Terribly so.

“How is your environmental initiative going?” asked Itachi.

Naruto’s face lit up. “It’s great! We finally managed to cook up an all-plant oil derivative capable of running a bike at speeds up to 140 MPH. And next week, we have a meeting with the city council about leading an expedition to the Ocean. It might take years, but it’s the first step.”

He nudged Sasuke. “ _He’s_ the one who organized the campaign and laid out the proposal, point by point. I couldn’t have done it without him.”

It was true. Behind Naruto’s madcap, inspirational energy was Sasuke's logical and thoroughly exacting methodology. They made a good pair, when Naruto wasn’t busy sniping that Sasuke was killing his creative vibe, and Sasuke wasn’t busy contemplating a hundred different ways he could whack some sense into Naruto’s brick head.

“What luck you two found each other. But what a shame you can’t fly anymore.”

Naruto shrugged. “Well, it _was_ fun. But we had our good time, and now we can go onto the next thing. As a bonus, I have this one here, to cuddle with at night so…” the blonde gave a thumbs-up. “It’s all good.”

“But don’t you _miss_ it?” asked Itachi curiously. “People have been dreaming of it for multiple millennia. You two have actually done it. You were _defying_ the laws of nature.”

Sasuke, a pragmatist through and through, snorted loudly. “Who cares? What’s done is done. And overall, those wings were just a real pain in the ass.”

“But they brought us together,” pointed out Naruto. “I mean, we never would have met otherwise. Or maybe we would’ve – fate and all that crap. But the wings made it a lot more fun, right babe?”

“Hn.” Sasuke did agree, but he wasn’t about to start waxing poetic about their be-winged meeting of destiny. Not in front of his brother.

Itachi sipped his wine. “I must say that I regret not having had the chance to study those fantastic wings in a more thorough way,” he said. “Phenomena like that doesn’t occur every thousand, or every hundred thousand years, you know.”

The sun went down.

 

With a loud _crunch_ and a tearing _rrrrrrrip_ of fabric, two raven-black wings popped out of Itachi’s back. But this time, they were like bat-like. A skeletal frame with leather stretched across the mammoth surfaces. Pulsating red veins ran through them like the rivers of hell. 

The wings unfurled like twin black holes, sucking in all the light in the room. They were as terrifying as a nightmare.

Sasuke and Naruto stared, horrified.

“Oh!” said Itachi, looking first at one, then the other. “Well. Would you look at that.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for sticking through to the end! Somehow (I had NO intention to do this at the beginning) it turned into like a quasi-environmental PSA? 
> 
> Some of the things stated here are totally not plausible - like the quick reversal of pollution etc. But you know, fanfic.
> 
> Lastly, please shoot me a DM and say hi to me on [instagram](https://www.instagram.com/alxkim/), as I don't have tumblr (I know right).


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